Re: House Rules Committee marks encryption bill as "open"

[kentborg@world.std.com (Kent Borg)]

"Shabbir J. Safdar" <shabbir@panix.com> wrote:
>I phoned the House Rules comm. this morning.  They informed me that
>the committee voted 5-4 earlier this week to allow amendments to the
>General Export Administration Act on the House Floor.

Stanton McCandlish <mech@eff.org> then copied it out to a zillion
destinations.

Aren't we looking a bit amateurish?
 
A loud call is put out in an attempt to lobby this committee, and it
took someone (apparently) in New York City to call the committee to
find out that, oh yes, a few days ago they had the vote and it went
our way.
 
Why was it again that EFF needed to open a Washington, D.C., office?
 
Come on folks!  We are playing the *big* time here.  Real Lobbiests
*know* how important votes go.  We are up against real lobbiests on
these issues.

If EFF is going to make official requests for faxes and phone calls it
should also make prompt official reports of the results.  I want us to
be organized, I want us to look organized, I want the Congress to know
we are organized.  

I also want the folks who sent the faxes and made the phone calls to
know when they accomplish something.  I would like to know how
individual Congressmen voted, so I can follow up my fax with a "thank
you" if appropriate.  Where is this info??

Is EFF on summer vacation?  If matters we care about are up for votes
we should be paying close attention *and* making it clear to everyone
that we are paying close attention.

Crypto export is extremely important, we should not mess this up.


-kb, the Kent who is feeling a bit embarrassed


--

Kent Borg                                                  +1 (617) 776-6899
kentborg@world.std.com                                
kentborg@aol.com                                      
          Proud to claim 32:00 hours of TV viewing so far in 1994!